Z E M C H 2 0 1 2 I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e
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Figure 2: BIM can be used for Designing, Optimising, Manufacturing and Planning
Further progress is being made to incorporate Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
used for the cutting of internal frame panels, eliminating a chain in the current workflow
loop, blurring the differences between BIM, CAD AND CAM. As Enemetric are
exploring ERP solutions, to improve business intelligence, interfaces are to be
developed to the BIM software, to permit highly accurate estimation and planning with
supplier databases and project management scheduling tools.
BIM can also be used to generate Building Simulation Models (BSM) for energy and
structural modeling to optimise the building during the design stages and can be used for
Simulation Assisted Control, and further Structural Health Assessment in the Building
Management System. Dynamic building simulation tools, such as ESP-r can be
integrated into the BIM software, to introduce Energy Performance Ratings based on a
intermediary meta-file file format method (Gauri et al., 2010), as well as in the Building
Management System for lookahead simulation optimisation. The meta-file format
enables direct creation of a Building Simulation Model which can be loaded into the
Simulation Assisted BMS. The Structural Design component is based on Finite Element
Analysis packages developed by The University of Edinburgh, which will be discussed in
greater detail in a later section. ERP is fundamentally used for estimating, planning and
project management.
1.2 Enterprise Resource Planning & BIM
Figure 3: Elements of an Enterprise Resource Planning System
